Tarpon by Kayak, Paddle for Your Life! 8-13-11

Tarpon by Kayak, Paddle for Your Life! 8-13-11
　
Friday had been one awesome day battling monster tarpons and sharks. The pogy pods were still going strong so my fishing partner for the last few trips and I made a plan to meet at the beach Saturday morning for what promised to be another great day on the big water.

We were braced to set a new county record! I had worked until 10:45 the night before, building leaders, rigging rods, sharpening hooks, etc. I could hardly sleep that night thinking about all the tarpon we were going to have stacked up the next day.

Ricky and I rendezvoused at the beach just after daylight and started glassing the surf for a bait pod to put in on. To our surprise the bait had vanished like smoke in the wind. One minute they were here, the next they were gone. We drove up and down the beach from High bridge all the way to the north city limits of Flagler Beach glassing until about 10:30 but to no avail. I told Rick “the baits been moving north, lets go way up towards Marineland and see if we can find them” but Ricky had about enough and wanted to call off the dogs and come back after lunch and see what we could find.

I decided to stop in town for provisions and ice and keep scouting. I made my way up north stopping at any available beach access to glass for bait. As I pulled up to the beach at 16^th rd., There they were…..pogies! There were probably 150 people ganged up on the beach and wading in the water right there, seemingly unaware of the large bait school just behind the breakers and what lurked beneath. The bait was nervous and after a few minutes I spotted a tarpon roll on the edge of the school. That was all I needed to see.

I pulled out and headed to recon the remaining accesses before I made a decision where we’d put in. I found some more good bait at Malacompra and phoned Ricky to assemble the team. I could hardly wait for him to get there. With Tarpon rolling and busting into the bait I was chomping at the bit to get on them. Rick finally arrived and we got in the water about 1:30 PM and paddled for the school.



There is not much that’s more exciting than paddling up on a school of bait with big 100 to 150# tarpon busting them. Sometimes the tarpon will strike so violently into the school that bait showers into the air for a 20-30’ diameter.

Due to the almost 3 hour battle Ricky had witnessed me wage on a tarpon the day before, he came packing some heavy duty equipment. Though Rick is an experienced scuba diver and off shore fisherman, this was only his 3rd time in a Kayak. On our previous trips together I had hooked up so  quickly Ricky did not even get a chance to fish. Today would be Ricky’s day! My roll for this trip was to keep Ricky in fresh pogies and act as chase boat and photographer.

The school we paddled up to was not tightly bunched which made it a little hard to snag a bait. I had to loop in a treble hook and after a couple casts I had the first volunteer. Rick hooked him up and heaved him back into the pod. About the time I caught another pogy a fish striped Rick’s hook so he paddled over and grabbed bait #2.  I was still trying to snag me a bait when Rick Hooked up! Rick hollered out “it’s a big Jack!” The jack pulled him around for a couple minutes before tearing off.

I had just caught bait #3 and Rick had a back up rod so I hollered over to him to try and snag a pogy. He pulled one out on the first cast, hooked him on and served him up.  Within minutes Ricky was hollering again “I got him, I got him!” as a big silver tarpon tail walked across the surface. I probably didn’t get to fish more than 10 minutes.







Well, once again it was time to take a ride east for deep water. Since the tarpon was keeping a steady course I grabbed on to Rick’s boat to save some paddling and add a little extra resistance to the fight. The  tarpon strained against Rick’s heavy line but all the pulling and acrobatics could not shake my hand sharpened Mustad hook. In about 45 minutes Ricky had him floating yak side and ready for the hero shot!

It was about this point that we heard the first rumble of thunder back towards the beach! Rick spun around and motioned towards the beach and said “look at that, we need to get out of here!”





We finished our pictures as fast as we could, stowed our gear and started paddling as fast as possible for the beach. About then a lightening strike to the NW. really got our attention and added a greater urgency to get off the water. We were about to come to the realization of just how serious a mistake we had made in not being aware of the building storm behind us. Although, I have to say, when we first heard the thunder the sky that direction did not look that threatening.

In the excitement for catching the 120#+ tarpon and moving as fast as possible to get the hell out of there I did not catch what depth the tarpon had pulled us out to but I can tell you this….. It took 15 minutes of paddling with all we had to get back to the 45’ mark!

This is were things got serious. In 45’ of water the wind hit us! I mean some real wind 35-45 mph kind of wind and coming off the beach. The water went from a slight swell to 3-4’ waves breaking over the bow. We were literally paddling for our lives. The thing I remember most was the pressure against the face of the paddle every time it came up. It was incredible. The rain was starting to come down but luckily we never lost sight of the beach.

The only thing we could do was paddle with all we had, stay square to the waves and hope the storm subsided before we ran out of steam. Finally, after about 25 minutes the wind let up and the water started to lay. What a relief that was! It took us a solid hour to make it back to the hill.


     Little did we know how bad it was about to get just a few minutes after this picture was taken!


                       By the time we were back on the beach the big surf had disappeared!

We drug our boats up on the beach and just sat there exhausted. I looked at Rick “I know your butt was puckered on that paddle, It sure had my attention!”

My close friend Capt. Rick Ruebel gave me some good advice once….”you need to be done fishing and headed back by 1:00PM to avoid the afternoon thunder storms.  I won’t let myself get caught like that again!

If your planning a trip in the surf with your yak, fish with a partner and be prepared. It can be one of your best days on the water but things can go sideways real fast.

Good luck,
Larry S.

Mosquito Lagoon Report 8-11-13

After getting some good reports of Tarpon at Playalinda beach we decided to head south and give it a try this morning.

The surf was reasonable but after checking all of the beach accesses we could not spot any bait or tarpon activity. The report I received was that the sharks were thick as flies and getting a bait to the tarpon was almost impossible. The water clarity has been exceptional....... Click here for the rest of the story:   Mosquito Lagoon Redfish

Beach Tarpon Report - Flagler County 8-4-13

For the second Saturday in a row I loaded up the yaks and beaded to flagler beach to look for some Tarpon. Last saturday morning there was a decent amount of pogies but they were scattered to thin to really fish effectively. Water clarity was great however. I probably saw 10 tarpon strikes all morning but never got a bit. By 10:30 AM the pogies had all but disappeared.

This saturday my brother joined me but there were so few pogies we did not even launch the boats. We saw no striking fish action at all.

The west winds have started and it is time the things to be kicking off here.

That's it...not much to tell for now.

Larry S.

Fishing Report- Mosquito Lagoon Area

Sat. May 18, 2013
Weather: 74 deg. at launch, 88 at landing Mostly clear to partly cloudy later in the day
Wind: moderate east winds, 8-10mph at launch, 15-18 +/- at noon
Water: Water has turned to a stained tea or brown color. I expect it’s due to the brown tide issues.
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout
Fish caught: (1) Ladyfish, (4) Redfish -mid- slot

We went back to the lagoon this morning to fish the spot we had all the action at last weekend.
We couldn't resist going back for more! We had a pretty good crew this morning....it was Myself, Rick Edwards and Dr. TR.

Unfortunately, the wind was forecasted to be 10 mph at 6 am and building to 16 mph by noon.

We decided to go ahead and chance it and hope against hope the forecast was wrong.

It wasn't!

 

 

We caught our live bait in a little creek on the paddle in and quickly fished as couple spots with top water as we made our way to "The Hole."

Unlike last weekend where the water was really clear we found it to be pretty dirty, probably due to the brown tide issues the area has been experiencing. We had to set up differently due to the wind direction.

It was some pretty slow fishing and most were caught well up into the morning. 

We caught a total or (4) mid slot redfish and one small lady fish all morning. The three reds I caught were on live pin fish and mullet and Rick caught his on a Gulp shrimp again. I had (2) others on but only briefly. I think Rick missed one as well. The conditions were difficult with the chop, making it difficult to see the sandy area. 

 

 

 

All the redfish were quality mid-slot fish and all pulled beyond what their size would suggest.

By noon we decided we had best start the paddle back. We were in a flat that was a little protected compared to the large open bay we had to cross. When we paddled out of the mouth of the creek we were met by some angry water and 15-18 mph winds.  It was no fun but we made it...just a little wetter than we started out.

 

 

Larry S.

Big Redfish!

Mosquito Lagoon Redfish

 

Fishing Report - Mosquito Lagoon Area 5-18-13

Sat. May 18, 2013
Weather: 68 deg. at launch, 85 at landing
Mostly clear to partly cloudy later in the day
wind: light east winds, 8-10mph +/- at noon
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout
Fish caught: (2) Trout- short, (13-14)  Redfish -upper slot

I fished with my friend Rick Edwards this morning. He has never fished any grass flats, sand holes, etc. and was depending on me to put us on the fish.  We paddled over a mile and a quarter to get to a big grass flat that turned out to be basically dead! The flat was really skinny and the sand holes had a skim of dead grass or some kind of fungus that is growing on the grass, covering the bottom. We paddled all the way to the far end and it was all the same. The worst part was that there was no bait and we did not even jump a red in all our travels there.

We headed to another flat from there and eventually found a decent school of tailing reds. I pulled one 20" fish out of them before they quit tailing.I caught that one on a live bait.

Eventually we moved to the other side of an island and found a big sand hole and the bite was on! We ended up catching three doubles and somewhere around 13-14 upper slot Redfish. We caught them on just about everything we had but I think the gulp shrimp produced the best. Rick caught one on a top water mirrolure. I caught one on a 17MR. We caught a number of them on live bait fish, both finger mullet and one I don't know the ID of. I caught two on live pin fish. Basically, anything that flashed got bit. It was a pretty aggressive bite.

It was a tremendous trip! It started slow and being Rick's first real flats adventure, he was having serious doubts until I finally found the fish.......Now he's all about Mosquito Lagoon!

Check out these photo from the trip.

Larry S.

Waving Rick over to a school of tailing Reds!

That's a tail in the upper left corner.

 

Fishing Report - High Bridge / Tomoka Basin

Thursday May. 16, 2013
Weather: 69 deg. at launch time
Clear skys
wind: light
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout

My fishing partner, Rick Edwards wanted to fish the area between High Bridge and the Tomoka River this morning. I had selected the location for our last adventure so it was his turn to be captain today. I had reservations about his selection due to all the recent rain runoff washing into the area.

We were joined by Dr. TR on this trip. We launched about 7:00 AM at high bridge and headed south.
We split up at the mouth of a creek and I paddled in to see what I could find. Just as I entered the creek I spotted a large school of mullet in the mouth of a small drain. This would be my first cast of the morning. I was fishing a 5M51 MirrOlure (floater) on one rod and a 17MR on another. When the 5M landed in the mullet school it was almost immediately smashed by a nice Snook.



Catching a fish on the first cast is usually not a good sign and that would be the case today. I hooked up with one more fish on the 17MR that I think was another snook but did not get to ID it before it pulled off. That would be it for the morning for me. I did not see any top water action, no pushing, no nothing. There was a little bit of bait here and there but not to much in the way of predator fish.

I decided to head back to the launch about 8:45 and left Rick and TR on their own. They did manage to catch a few fish themselves but they fished until noon to do it. Together they landed (3) reds, (2) trout and a jack. Most were caught on live shrimp but one of the reds attacked a gold spoon.

I think the area just need some time for the salinity to build back up.

Larry Stephens

Kayak Anchor vs Stake-Out Pole!

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If you do any fishing from your kayak there are a number of situations where you are going to need a way to hold a constant position to be able to fish effectively, particularly if you are a bait fishermen.                                        

Also, given the light nature of a kayak and the ease with which it moves through the water, they are susceptible to being moved by the lightest of wind. If you are in shallow water, say 3.5' or less you could pin yourself to the bottom with a stake-out pole or even use the stake pole, anchor style with a tether attaching it to your yak. However, if the water is much deeper than that you are going to need a regular anchor 

There are a couple different styles of anchors that are most suited for a Kayak, the mushroom type (abv. right) and the folding grapnel style such as the Attwood model (pictured below) which comes in 3lb. and 5lb.  weights.

 



 

I personally like and use the fold-up style anchor.

The folding grapnel design stays folded and locked up until you are ready to deploy it. The grapnel design when deployed holds well in a variety of bottom conditions. This anchor also has a heavy, hot dipped galvanizing and I use mine in the saltwater more often than not. It still looks like the day I bought it.

A stake-out pole can be made from a variety of items. Even an old wooden broom handle that has a sharpened end will work. Install it through one of your scupper holes and you can pin yourself to the bottom in a variety of situations. The only problem with the broom handle is the large diameter. It is more difficult to press into the bottom compared to a smaller diameter rod style. If you can't push the pole in far enough it will be sticking up in your way while you are trying to fish.

If you are not so handy or don't want to bother with building your own, there are a variety of Stake-out poles manufactured for just this purpose. There are several poles shown below and you can follow the link to Amazon for more information and buyer reviews.

Being able to hold your kayaks position is important for many fishing situations. Unless you only do a certain type of fishing you should have access to both an anchor and a Stake-Out Pole.

Being prepared for any situation that presents itself is a key to success on the water!

Tight lines,
Larry S.